This is not perldebug,
which tells you how to use the debugger.
This manpage describes low-level details concerning the debugger's internals,
which range from difficult to impossible to understand for anyone who isn't incredibly intimate with Perl's guts.
Caveat lector.

Perl has special debugging hooks at compile-time and run-time used to create debugging environments.
These hooks are not to be confused with the perl -Dxxx command described in perlrun,
which is usable only if a special Perl is built per the instructions in the INSTALL podpage in the Perl source tree.

For example,
whenever you call Perl's built-in caller function from the package DB,
the arguments that the corresponding stack frame was called with are copied to the @DB::args array.
These mechanisms are enabled by calling Perl with the -d switch.
Specifically,
the following additional features are enabled (cf.
"$^P" in perlvar):

Perl inserts the contents of $ENV{PERL5DB} (or BEGIN {require 'perl5db.pl'} if not present) before the first line of your program.

Each array @{"_<$filename"} holds the lines of $filename for a file compiled by Perl.
The same is also true for evaled strings that contain subroutines,
or which are currently being executed.
The $filename for evaled strings looks like (eval 34).

Values in this array are magical in numeric context: they compare equal to zero only if the line is not breakable.

Each hash %{"_<$filename"} contains breakpoints and actions keyed by line number.
Individual entries (as opposed to the whole hash) are settable.
Perl only cares about Boolean true here,
although the values used by perl5db.pl have the form "$break_condition\0$action".

The same holds for evaluated strings that contain subroutines,
or which are currently being executed.
The $filename for evaled strings looks like (eval 34).

Each scalar ${"_<$filename"} contains "_<$filename".
This is also the case for evaluated strings that contain subroutines,
or which are currently being executed.
The $filename for evaled strings looks like (eval 34).

After each required file is compiled,
but before it is executed,
DB::postponed(*{"_<$filename"}) is called if the subroutine DB::postponed exists.
Here,
the $filename is the expanded name of the required file,
as found in the values of %INC.

After each subroutine subname is compiled,
the existence of $DB::postponed{subname} is checked.
If this key exists,
DB::postponed(subname) is called if the DB::postponed subroutine also exists.

A hash %DB::sub is maintained,
whose keys are subroutine names and whose values have the form filename:startline-endline.
filename has the form (eval 34) for subroutines defined inside evals.

When the execution of your program reaches a point that can hold a breakpoint,
the DB::DB() subroutine is called if any of the variables $DB::trace,
$DB::single,
or $DB::signal is true.
These variables are not localizable.
This feature is disabled when executing inside DB::DB(),
including functions called from it unless $^D & (1<<30) is true.

When execution of the program reaches a subroutine call,
a call to &DB::sub(args) is made instead,
with $DB::sub holding the name of the called subroutine.
(This doesn't happen if the subroutine was compiled in the DB package.)

Note that if &DB::sub needs external data for it to work,
no subroutine call is possible without it.
As an example,
the standard debugger's &DB::sub depends on the $DB::deep variable (it defines how many levels of recursion deep into the debugger you can go before a mandatory break).
If $DB::deep is not defined,
subroutine calls are not possible,
even though &DB::sub exists.

The PERL5DB environment variable can be used to define a debugger.
For example,
the minimal "working" debugger (it actually doesn't do anything) consists of one line:

sub DB::DB {}

It can easily be defined like this:

$ PERL5DB="sub DB::DB {}" perl -d your-script

Another brief debugger, slightly more useful, can be created with only the line:

sub DB::DB {print ++$i; scalar <STDIN>}

This debugger prints a number which increments for each statement encountered and waits for you to hit a newline before continuing to the next statement.

The following debugger is actually useful:

{
package DB;
sub DB {}
sub sub {print ++$i, " $sub\n"; &$sub}
}

It prints the sequence number of each subroutine call and the name of the called subroutine. Note that &DB::sub is being compiled into the package DB through the use of the package directive.

When it starts, the debugger reads your rc file (./.perldb or ~/.perldb under Unix), which can set important options. (A subroutine (&afterinit) can be defined here as well; it is executed after the debugger completes its own initialization.)

After the rc file is read, the debugger reads the PERLDB_OPTS environment variable and uses it to set debugger options. The contents of this variable are treated as if they were the argument of an o ... debugger command (q.v. in "Configurable Options" in perldebug).

In addition to the file and subroutine-related variables mentioned above, the debugger also maintains various magical internal variables.

@DB::dbline is an alias for @{"::_<current_file"}, which holds the lines of the currently-selected file (compiled by Perl), either explicitly chosen with the debugger's f command, or implicitly by flow of execution.

Values in this array are magical in numeric context: they compare equal to zero only if the line is not breakable.

%DB::dbline is an alias for %{"::_<current_file"}, which contains breakpoints and actions keyed by line number in the currently-selected file, either explicitly chosen with the debugger's f command, or implicitly by flow of execution.

As previously noted, individual entries (as opposed to the whole hash) are settable. Perl only cares about Boolean true here, although the values used by perl5db.pl have the form "$break_condition\0$action".

DB::dump_trace(skip[,count]) skips the specified number of frames and returns a list containing information about the calling frames (all of them, if count is missing). Each entry is reference to a hash with keys context (either ., $, or @), sub (subroutine name, or info about eval), args (undef or a reference to an array), file, and line.

DB::print_trace(FH, skip[, count[, short]]) prints formatted info about caller frames. The last two functions may be convenient as arguments to <, << commands.

Note that any variables and functions that are not documented in this manpages (or in perldebug) are considered for internal use only, and as such are subject to change without notice.

By way of demonstration, we present below a laborious listing resulting from setting your PERLDB_OPTS environment variable to the value f=n N, and running perl -d -V from the command line. Examples using various values of n are shown to give you a feel for the difference between settings. Long though it may be, this is not a complete listing, but only excerpts.

in $=main::BEGIN() from /dev/null:0
in $=Config::BEGIN() from lib/Config.pm:2
Package lib/Exporter.pm.
Package lib/Carp.pm.
Package lib/Config.pm.
in $=Config::TIEHASH('Config') from lib/Config.pm:644
in $=Exporter::import('Config', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from /dev/null:0
in $=Exporter::export('Config', 'main', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from li
in @=Config::myconfig() from /dev/null:0
in $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'package') from lib/Config.pm:574
in $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'baserev') from lib/Config.pm:574
in $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'PERL_VERSION') from lib/Config.pm:574
in $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'PERL_SUBVERSION') from lib/Config.pm:574
in $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'osname') from lib/Config.pm:574
in $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'osvers') from lib/Config.pm:574

in $=main::BEGIN() from /dev/null:0
in $=Config::BEGIN() from lib/Config.pm:2
Package lib/Exporter.pm.
Package lib/Carp.pm.
out $=Config::BEGIN() from lib/Config.pm:0
Package lib/Config.pm.
in $=Config::TIEHASH('Config') from lib/Config.pm:644
out $=Config::TIEHASH('Config') from lib/Config.pm:644
in $=Exporter::import('Config', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from /dev/null:0
in $=Exporter::export('Config', 'main', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from lib/
out $=Exporter::export('Config', 'main', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from lib/
out $=Exporter::import('Config', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from /dev/null:0
out $=main::BEGIN() from /dev/null:0
in @=Config::myconfig() from /dev/null:0
in $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'package') from lib/Config.pm:574
out $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'package') from lib/Config.pm:574
in $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'baserev') from lib/Config.pm:574
out $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'baserev') from lib/Config.pm:574
in $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'PERL_VERSION') from lib/Config.pm:574
out $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'PERL_VERSION') from lib/Config.pm:574
in $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'PERL_SUBVERSION') from lib/Config.pm:574

in $=main::BEGIN() from /dev/null:0
in $=Config::BEGIN() from lib/Config.pm:2
Package lib/Exporter.pm.
Package lib/Carp.pm.
out $=Config::BEGIN() from lib/Config.pm:0
Package lib/Config.pm.
in $=Config::TIEHASH('Config') from lib/Config.pm:644
out $=Config::TIEHASH('Config') from lib/Config.pm:644
in $=Exporter::import('Config', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from /dev/null:0
in $=Exporter::export('Config', 'main', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from lib/E
out $=Exporter::export('Config', 'main', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from lib/E
out $=Exporter::import('Config', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from /dev/null:0
out $=main::BEGIN() from /dev/null:0
in @=Config::myconfig() from /dev/null:0
in $=Config::FETCH('Config=HASH(0x1aa444)', 'package') from lib/Config.pm:574
out $=Config::FETCH('Config=HASH(0x1aa444)', 'package') from lib/Config.pm:574
in $=Config::FETCH('Config=HASH(0x1aa444)', 'baserev') from lib/Config.pm:574
out $=Config::FETCH('Config=HASH(0x1aa444)', 'baserev') from lib/Config.pm:574

In all cases shown above, the line indentation shows the call tree. If bit 2 of frame is set, a line is printed on exit from a subroutine as well. If bit 4 is set, the arguments are printed along with the caller info. If bit 8 is set, the arguments are printed even if they are tied or references. If bit 16 is set, the return value is printed, too.

The first line shows the pre-compiled form of the regex. The second shows the size of the compiled form (in arbitrary units, usually 4-byte words) and the total number of bytes allocated for the offset/length table, usually 4+size*8. The next line shows the label id of the first node that does a match.

line (split into two lines above) contains optimizer information. In the example shown, the optimizer found that the match should contain a substring de at offset 1, plus substring gh at some offset between 3 and infinity. Moreover, when checking for these substrings (to abandon impossible matches quickly), Perl will check for the substring gh before checking for the substring de. The optimizer may also use the knowledge that the match starts (at the firstid) with a character class, and no string shorter than 7 characters can possibly match.

If the pattern may match only at a handful of places, with TYPE being BOL, MBOL, or GPOS. See the table below.

If a substring is known to match at end-of-line only, it may be followed by $, as in floating 'k'$.

The optimizer-specific information is used to avoid entering (a slow) regex engine on strings that will not definitely match. If the isall flag is set, a call to the regex engine may be avoided even when the optimizer found an appropriate place for the match.

Above the optimizer section is the list of nodes of the compiled form of the regex. Each line has format

# TYPE arg-description [num-args] [longjump-len] DESCRIPTION
# Exit points
END no End of program.
SUCCEED no Return from a subroutine, basically.
# Anchors:
BOL no Match "" at beginning of line.
MBOL no Same, assuming multiline.
SBOL no Same, assuming singleline.
EOS no Match "" at end of string.
EOL no Match "" at end of line.
MEOL no Same, assuming multiline.
SEOL no Same, assuming singleline.
BOUND no Match "" at any word boundary using
native charset semantics for non-utf8
BOUNDL no Match "" at any locale word boundary
BOUNDU no Match "" at any word boundary using
Unicode semantics
BOUNDA no Match "" at any word boundary using ASCII
semantics
NBOUND no Match "" at any word non-boundary using
native charset semantics for non-utf8
NBOUNDL no Match "" at any locale word non-boundary
NBOUNDU no Match "" at any word non-boundary using
Unicode semantics
NBOUNDA no Match "" at any word non-boundary using
ASCII semantics
GPOS no Matches where last m//g left off.
# [Special] alternatives:
REG_ANY no Match any one character (except newline).
SANY no Match any one character.
CANY no Match any one byte.
ANYOF sv Match character in (or not in) this
class, single char match only
ANYOF_WARN_SUPER sv Match character in (or not in) this
class, warn (if enabled) upon matching a
char above Unicode max;
ANYOF_SYNTHETIC sv Synthetic start class
POSIXD none Some [[:class:]] under /d; the FLAGS
field gives which one
POSIXL none Some [[:class:]] under /l; the FLAGS
field gives which one
POSIXU none Some [[:class:]] under /u; the FLAGS
field gives which one
POSIXA none Some [[:class:]] under /a; the FLAGS
field gives which one
NPOSIXD none complement of POSIXD, [[:^class:]]
NPOSIXL none complement of POSIXL, [[:^class:]]
NPOSIXU none complement of POSIXU, [[:^class:]]
NPOSIXA none complement of POSIXA, [[:^class:]]
CLUMP no Match any extended grapheme cluster
sequence
# Alternation
# BRANCH The set of branches constituting a single choice are
# hooked together with their "next" pointers, since
# precedence prevents anything being concatenated to
# any individual branch. The "next" pointer of the last
# BRANCH in a choice points to the thing following the
# whole choice. This is also where the final "next"
# pointer of each individual branch points; each branch
# starts with the operand node of a BRANCH node.
#
BRANCH node Match this alternative, or the next...
# Back pointer
# BACK Normal "next" pointers all implicitly point forward;
# BACK exists to make loop structures possible.
# not used
BACK no Match "", "next" ptr points backward.
# Literals
EXACT str Match this string (preceded by length).
EXACTF str Match this non-UTF-8 string (not
guaranteed to be folded) using /id rules
(w/len).
EXACTFL str Match this string (not guaranteed to be
folded) using /il rules (w/len).
EXACTFU str Match this string (folded iff in UTF-8,
length in folding doesn't change if not
in UTF-8) using /iu rules (w/len).
EXACTFA str Match this string (not guaranteed to be
folded) using /iaa rules (w/len).
EXACTFU_SS str Match this string (folded iff in UTF-8,
length in folding may change even if not
in UTF-8) using /iu rules (w/len).
EXACTFU_TRICKYFOLD str Match this folded UTF-8 string using /iu
rules
# Do nothing types
NOTHING no Match empty string.
# A variant of above which delimits a group, thus stops optimizations
TAIL no Match empty string. Can jump here from
outside.
# Loops
# STAR,PLUS '?', and complex '*' and '+', are implemented as
# circular BRANCH structures using BACK. Simple cases
# (one character per match) are implemented with STAR
# and PLUS for speed and to minimize recursive plunges.
#
STAR node Match this (simple) thing 0 or more
times.
PLUS node Match this (simple) thing 1 or more
times.
CURLY sv 2 Match this simple thing {n,m} times.
CURLYN no 2 Capture next-after-this simple thing
CURLYM no 2 Capture this medium-complex thing {n,m}
times.
CURLYX sv 2 Match this complex thing {n,m} times.
# This terminator creates a loop structure for CURLYX
WHILEM no Do curly processing and see if rest
matches.
# Buffer related
# OPEN,CLOSE,GROUPP ...are numbered at compile time.
OPEN num 1 Mark this point in input as start of #n.
CLOSE num 1 Analogous to OPEN.
REF num 1 Match some already matched string
REFF num 1 Match already matched string, folded
using native charset semantics for non-
utf8
REFFL num 1 Match already matched string, folded in
loc.
REFFU num 1 Match already matched string, folded
using unicode semantics for non-utf8
REFFA num 1 Match already matched string, folded
using unicode semantics for non-utf8, no
mixing ASCII, non-ASCII
# Named references. Code in regcomp.c assumes that these all are after
# the numbered references
NREF no-sv 1 Match some already matched string
NREFF no-sv 1 Match already matched string, folded
using native charset semantics for non-
utf8
NREFFL no-sv 1 Match already matched string, folded in
loc.
NREFFU num 1 Match already matched string, folded
using unicode semantics for non-utf8
NREFFA num 1 Match already matched string, folded
using unicode semantics for non-utf8, no
mixing ASCII, non-ASCII
IFMATCH off 1 2 Succeeds if the following matches.
UNLESSM off 1 2 Fails if the following matches.
SUSPEND off 1 1 "Independent" sub-RE.
IFTHEN off 1 1 Switch, should be preceded by switcher.
GROUPP num 1 Whether the group matched.
# Support for long RE
LONGJMP off 1 1 Jump far away.
BRANCHJ off 1 1 BRANCH with long offset.
# The heavy worker
EVAL evl 1 Execute some Perl code.
# Modifiers
MINMOD no Next operator is not greedy.
LOGICAL no Next opcode should set the flag only.
# This is not used yet
RENUM off 1 1 Group with independently numbered parens.
# Trie Related
# Behave the same as A|LIST|OF|WORDS would. The '..C' variants
# have inline charclass data (ascii only), the 'C' store it in the
# structure.
TRIE trie 1 Match many EXACT(F[ALU]?)? at once.
flags==type
TRIEC trie Same as TRIE, but with embedded charclass
charclass data
AHOCORASICK trie 1 Aho Corasick stclass. flags==type
AHOCORASICKC trie Same as AHOCORASICK, but with embedded
charclass charclass data
# Regex Subroutines
GOSUB num/ofs 2L recurse to paren arg1 at (signed) ofs
arg2
GOSTART no recurse to start of pattern
# Special conditionals
NGROUPP no-sv 1 Whether the group matched.
INSUBP num 1 Whether we are in a specific recurse.
DEFINEP none 1 Never execute directly.
# Backtracking Verbs
ENDLIKE none Used only for the type field of verbs
OPFAIL none Same as (?!)
ACCEPT parno 1 Accepts the current matched string.
# Verbs With Arguments
VERB no-sv 1 Used only for the type field of verbs
PRUNE no-sv 1 Pattern fails at this startpoint if no-
backtracking through this
MARKPOINT no-sv 1 Push the current location for rollback by
cut.
SKIP no-sv 1 On failure skip forward (to the mark)
before retrying
COMMIT no-sv 1 Pattern fails outright if backtracking
through this
CUTGROUP no-sv 1 On failure go to the next alternation in
the group
# Control what to keep in $&.
KEEPS no $& begins here.
# New charclass like patterns
LNBREAK none generic newline pattern
# SPECIAL REGOPS
# This is not really a node, but an optimized away piece of a "long"
# node. To simplify debugging output, we mark it as if it were a node
OPTIMIZED off Placeholder for dump.
# Special opcode with the property that no opcode in a compiled program
# will ever be of this type. Thus it can be used as a flag value that
# no other opcode has been seen. END is used similarly, in that an END
# node cant be optimized. So END implies "unoptimizable" and PSEUDO
# mean "not seen anything to optimize yet".
PSEUDO off Pseudo opcode for internal use.

Following the optimizer information is a dump of the offset/length table, here split across several lines:

The first line here indicates that the offset/length table contains 45 entries. Each entry is a pair of integers, denoted by offset[length]. Entries are numbered starting with 1, so entry #1 here is 1[4] and entry #12 is 5[1]. 1[4] indicates that the node labeled 1: (the 1: ANYOF[bc]) begins at character position 1 in the pre-compiled form of the regex, and has a length of 4 characters. 5[1] in position 12 indicates that the node labeled 12: (the 12: EXACT <d>) begins at character position 5 in the pre-compiled form of the regex, and has a length of 1 character. 12[1] in position 14 indicates that the node labeled 14: (the 14: CURLYX[0] {1,32767}) begins at character position 12 in the pre-compiled form of the regex, and has a length of 1 character---that is, it corresponds to the + symbol in the precompiled regex.

First of all, when doing a match, one may get no run-time output even if debugging is enabled. This means that the regex engine was never entered and that all of the job was therefore done by the optimizer.

Perl is a profligate wastrel when it comes to memory use. There is a saying that to estimate memory usage of Perl, assume a reasonable algorithm for memory allocation, multiply that estimate by 10, and while you still may miss the mark, at least you won't be quite so astonished. This is not absolutely true, but may provide a good grasp of what happens.

Assume that an integer cannot take less than 20 bytes of memory, a float cannot take less than 24 bytes, a string cannot take less than 32 bytes (all these examples assume 32-bit architectures, the result are quite a bit worse on 64-bit architectures). If a variable is accessed in two of three different ways (which require an integer, a float, or a string), the memory footprint may increase yet another 20 bytes. A sloppy malloc(3) implementation can inflate these numbers dramatically.

On the opposite end of the scale, a declaration like

sub foo;

may take up to 500 bytes of memory, depending on which release of Perl you're running.

Anecdotal estimates of source-to-compiled code bloat suggest an eightfold increase. This means that the compiled form of reasonable (normally commented, properly indented etc.) code will take about eight times more space in memory than the code took on disk.

The -DL command-line switch is obsolete since circa Perl 5.6.0 (it was available only if Perl was built with -DDEBUGGING). The switch was used to track Perl's memory allocations and possible memory leaks. These days the use of malloc debugging tools like Purify or valgrind is suggested instead. See also "PERL_MEM_LOG" in perlhacktips.

One way to find out how much memory is being used by Perl data structures is to install the Devel::Size module from CPAN: it gives you the minimum number of bytes required to store a particular data structure. Please be mindful of the difference between the size() and total_size().

If Perl has been compiled using Perl's malloc you can analyze Perl memory usage by setting $ENV{PERL_DEBUG_MSTATS}.

If your perl is using Perl's malloc() and was compiled with the necessary switches (this is the default), then it will print memory usage statistics after compiling your code when $ENV{PERL_DEBUG_MSTATS} > 1, and before termination of the program when $ENV{PERL_DEBUG_MSTATS} >= 1. The report format is similar to the following example:

Perl's malloc() uses bucketed allocations. Every request is rounded up to the closest bucket size available, and a bucket is taken from the pool of buckets of that size.

The line above describes the limits of buckets currently in use. Each bucket has two sizes: memory footprint and the maximal size of user data that can fit into this bucket. Suppose in the above example that the smallest bucket were size 4. The biggest bucket would have usable size 8188, and the memory footprint would be 8192.

In a Perl built for debugging, some buckets may have negative usable size. This means that these buckets cannot (and will not) be used. For larger buckets, the memory footprint may be one page greater than a power of 2. If so, the corresponding power of two is printed in the APPROX field above.

The 1 or 2 rows of numbers following that correspond to the number of buckets of each size between SMALLEST and GREATEST. In the first row, the sizes (memory footprints) of buckets are powers of two--or possibly one page greater. In the second row, if present, the memory footprints of the buckets are between the memory footprints of two buckets "above".

For example, suppose under the previous example, the memory footprints were

free: 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024 2048 4096 8192
4 12 24 48 80

With a non-DEBUGGING perl, the buckets starting from 128 have a 4-byte overhead, and thus an 8192-long bucket may take up to 8188-byte allocations.

The first two fields give the total amount of memory perl sbrk(2)ed (ess-broken? :-) and number of sbrk(2)s used. The third number is what perl thinks about continuity of returned chunks. So long as this number is positive, malloc() will assume that it is probable that sbrk(2) will provide continuous memory.

malloc() may want to subdivide a bigger bucket into smaller buckets. If only a part of the deceased bucket is left unsubdivided, the rest is kept as an element of a linked list. This field gives the total size of these chunks.